At the Peace Corps booth, Nichole Sheets, a 27-year-old Huntington native who just returned to the Tri-State from Moldova handed out brochures. Sheets, who writes a monthly column for the Herald-Dispatch, said that from her first steps in the small, poor country near Romania, people were hospitable.

“My second night in the country I was staying in the same house with two parents, three children and two houseguests. They prepared a wonderful meal for me. I didn’t know any Romanian; they didn’t know any English. I already felt welcome in their home,” Sheets said.

However, she quickly found herself adjusting to traditional European gender roles, which did not approve of America’s grungy styles of jeans and sweats. “One thing Moldavians are very fashionable people. Even though it’s the poorest country in Europe, people spend a lot of money on what they wear and a lot of time on how they look. I was teaching my first summer there and my host mother wouldn’t let me out of the house if I had a wrinkled skirt on. She said that I iron everything. I don’t even own an iron! As Americans we had to be a little more conscious of looking professional and dressing more nicely.”

Asked whether feminine fashion related to gender roles, she responded, “That’s a very astute observation. A lot of women want a career [there], but most every woman wants a husband. They put a lot of attention on what they wear and looking pretty in hopes that they’ll meet a guy at the university or disco.” Although women in the small country are marrying later, “there’s still the competition for a good husband and an impulse when you enter your early 20s to start a family. By their standards, I’m kind of an ‘old maid’ [at 27]. Almost all of the women were dating someone seriously or married.”

Yet, whether in Europe or America, the women still complained about their husbands and boyfriends. According to Sheets, “Almost all of my students were women… [They] had to do all the cooking, cleaning and taking care of kids. Some work outside [the home], but [their husband’s] expect the inside to be done.”

Although she volunteered there during the Iraq conflict, Sheets said, “I never felt like a target. People were able to distinguish between me as an American and America the country. There were well over 100 Peace Corps volunteers and I think they had similar reactions. There was a lot of curiosity, but no animosity.”

When this story was posted in November 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:

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Story Source: Huntington News

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Moldova; Gender Issues

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